I Don’t Hate Your iPhone

My friend S (not his real name, obviously) decided to take advantage of the excellent price drop on the iPhone 4 and pick one up. Except when he told me this he prefaced it with “Now don’t be upset but…” This isn’t the first time something like this has happened and I’m always amused by it. For starters, I’m a firm believer that people should get the phone that suits them best — worrying about what I or anyone else think should never be a factor. I’m not sure where people get the impression that I hate the iPhone. Yes, I use a webOS phone. However, I bought that because I like webOS, not because I dislike iOS.

When the iPhone came out, I absolutely had issues with it. The lack of a software developer kit (SDK), lack of features like multitasking and cut and paste, non-removable battery, and being on the worst network in my area made it an absolute non-starter for me. At the time, I could do more with a simple PalmOS or Windows Mobile phone and would likely pay less. Essentially, it didn’t feel smart enough to be a smartphone. Because most users aren’t power users, this hardly phased anyone. Desire for a phone that synced with media library in a slick and elegant way was all anyone wanted.

That is, until it became a bloated mess

And boy did they want it. Each iPhone release sees a massive surge in buyers, with last weekend seeing four million iPhone sales. Apple went on to not only address almost every single one of my issues — with the exception of the battery thing — but they also redefined what people expected from a smartphone. This is reflected in things like the current multitude of app stores or Microsoft launching Windows Phone 7 without cut and paste or even the current price points on other smartphones. Think about it: the lowest-end free with contract smartphone is likely more powerful than a lot of people’s first computers.

Remember when having color and sound was a big deal?

I tend to look at the cellphone network first, then OS, and then at the hardware. It’s more than likely that I’ll replace my FrankenPre (a Pre+ hacked to run on Sprint) with an iPhone on Sprint.  This is despite my preferring hard keyboards to soft ones, because I’d rather use a soft keyboard than a landscape keyboard. Also, I simply find iOS’s interface more comfortable than Android, especially the app switching.

It’s possible that Android Ice Cream Sandwich may change my mind or that a white knight may charge in or I could finally get my hands on a Windows Phone 7 Mango device and be blown away. Heck, it’s even a possibility that someone could swoop in and save webOS from the dustbin of history (although that seems less and less likely). Early adopters of smartphones who sneer at the iPhone risk coming off as what they tend to deride iPhone users as: hipsters. Hipsters whining that they were using smartphones before they were cool.

There's an App for that, but you've probably never heard of it.